THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE. (Second Notice.) THIS large and handsome volume affords such a fund of curious information, that our only difficulty is how to select so as to do justice to it: we can only give a very faint idea of its multifarious contents. The Guilds of the middle ages afford a very interesting subject for research, on which information is much wanted: there is abundance of materials respecting them scattered through a variety of large and expensive works, but there is no manual for ready use. One was promised a few years since by Mr. Eld, of Coventry, but it has not yet appeared. The perfect preservation of the hall of St. Mary's Guild in that city ought to be a stimulus to an antiquary of Coventry. The Guildhall in London is another instance which shews the want of some popular work on the subject. How few know the meaning of the name. The guilds were the origin of our modern corporations, and the substitutes for clubs, benefit societies, insurance offices, clothing-funds, coal-funds, &c. The guild-halls have in many cases become town-halls; they are also the prototypes of our modern club-houses. Some of these guilds were purely mercantile corporations, as the cordwainers' guild, the stationers' guild, the tailors' guild, the guild of barber-surgeons, &c., &c. Others were almost entirely of a religious or of a charitable character. Others, again, were mixed, secular and religious; for in those days religion entered into the affairs of every-day life, and was not considered as the business of Sundays only. St. Mary's Guild appears to have been generally the chief trading society. We find this the case not only at Boston, but in many other places, as at Coventry; and at an earlier period, we have at Lincoln the Hall of St. Mary's Guild, an extensive range of building of the end of the twelfth century, now popularly known as 'John of Gaunt's Stables," because his palace was near to it. Numerous other instances will doubtless occur to our readers. ་་ The history of Boston affords us much curious information respecting the guilds in that town. Some of them had evidently become monastic institutions, though they probably were not so originally, and were suppressed at the Reformation, with the lesser monasteries; but a part of their funds was devoted to the foundation of a grammar-school, which was rendered necessary by their suppression, for the guilds, and the brethren belonging to them, had been largely engaged in education. The whole chapter on the subject of the guilds in Mr. Thompson's History of Boston is well worth reading, but we must be content with a few extracts: "The Guild of CORPUS CHRISTI was founded by Gilbert Alilaunde, a merchant of Boston, on the 8th of May, 1335, (9 Edward III.) The register gives the names of thirty brethren (including the founder) who formed the fraternity or guild in the first instance; of whom twenty-six were resident at Boston, one at Lynn, one at Wesenham, one at Threckingham, and "The History and Antiquities of Boston, Lincolnshire. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with One Hundred Engravings." (Boston: John Noble, jun. Royal 8vo., and large paper, folio. 812 pp.) the possessions of the guild are enumerated "two golden chalices, twelve silver spoons, and one camisia of St. Patrick? "The first act of the brethren of the guild appears to have been to pass an order that a book should be kept, to be called "The Registry of the Guild or Fraternity of Corpus Christi of Boston; in which register should be recorded the names of all the brothers and sisters of the said guild at its first foundation, and those of all the other brothers and sisters who should thereafter be admitted, by the alderman and confratres. The names not to be entered according to the dignity or rank of the persons, but according to the order in which they were received into the fraternity. There shall follow in the said register a kalendar, with a space opposite each month, to register the names of the brothers and sisters of the said guild who shall die, and especially of those benefactors to the guild who have given or shall bequeath any memorial to the guild, or of whose obit the aldermen and brethren hold an annual commemoration. And lastly, in the said register shall be recorded the rule of all obits, by the alderman and brethren to be held and celebrated. And also to shew how much, and in what manner, the alderman and brethren, by the different deeds in the treasury of the guild, ought to give to the presbyters and clerks, and wandering paupers yearly." (p. 115.) "Gilbert de Alilaunde is here entered on the register as the founder and especial friend of the guild; who had presented to the fraternity many books, vestments, and jewels; decorated the chapel of Corpus Christi, and erected other fair edifices; also given lands and tenements whilst he lived; and amortizando' the same fraternity, and given most largely to the said guild. Ten assistants to the alderman were appointed in 1350. These were the Duke of Lancaster; John de Bokyngham, bishop of Lincoln; Sir Hugh Willoughby, knight, and Lady Mariosa his wife; Sir Ralph Cromwell, knight, and Matilda his wife; Sir Matthew Redman, Sir William Skipwith, Sir John de Rocheford, and Sir Ralph de Rochford, knights." -(p. 116) Biographical notices of each of these founders and benefactors here follow, but they are too long for extract: they are chiefly taken from the obits in the register of the guild. We then have a translation of the Rental in 1489, 5 Henry VII., a valuable document, from which we make a few selections: "Also of the said mansion called Golden hows, that is to say, the hall, the parlour, the kitchen, 2 chambers, by year, at the feast of Pasche and Michaelmas, by even portions...26s. 8d.”—(p. 128.) "Also for the farm of one tenement, with one garden thereto lying, called Toly monde Hows, lying beside the sign of the Bell, the which Henry Smyth holds by indenture [for] the term of 10 years, by year, at Pasche and at Michaelmas Archangel, by even portions....26s. 8d."— (p. 129.) So early as the time of Richard II. the large possessions of the various guilds and fraternities appear to have excited attention, and caused those enquiries into abuses which ultimately terminated in their dissolution:— "A proclamation was made in the reign of Richard II., 11 or 12 of his reign, by which the Sheriff of Lincolnshire was required to give notice to the "Masters and keepers of all guilds and fraternities to certify to the King and his council, before the next feast of the Purification, the mode and form of the foundation of all and every such guild, and its rules and regulations from the commencement, the manner of living of the brethren and sisters, and the liberties, privileges, statutes, ordinances, uses and customs thereof. And also a full account of all lands and tenements, rents and possessions, and of all goods and chattels of Newland, guardian to this guild in 1389, to the King's writ of inquiry relating to guilds, that the Guild of St. Mary at Boston was founded 1260, by Andrew de Gote, Walter Tumby, Galfrid de la Gotere, Robert Leland, and Hugh Spaynge, of St. Botolph's."-(p. 134.) THE GUILD-HALL, OR HALL OF ST. MARY'S GUILD, Then a papal bull granting various privileges, and after various other particulars we come to the dissolution and sale of the property : "The wealth of the Guild of St. Mary will be sufficiently evident from a brief enumeration of the goods it possessed, as detailed in the inventory which was taken of them 2nd July, 1534, (26 Henry VIII.) This inventory is a parchment roll, nine feet in length, and closely written on both sides. Both the beginning and end are so much injured by damp as to have become illegible. The enumeration of the furniture, &c., of the chantry comes first. The contents of the parlour, the buttrey, GENT. MAG. VOL. CCII. and the hall are given; then follow the kitchen and the larder-house. "An old Antiphoner. above, enamyled with asure, weyinge to "A booke called Legenda Sanctorum, gethyr 46 oz. wrytten. "A hen cage, with a shelfe withyn. 2 tubs. 2 sowes, [large tubs.] A great boll & a lesser boll. A hogs-hed to put in salte. A market maunde (basket) with a coveringe. 12 brass pots, kettles, &c., weighynge together 167 lbs. A great yron spyt, weigh ynge 14 lbs. A payre of cobbards of yron, weighynge 23 lbs. Other spytts, droppyng-pans, frynge-pans, brandreths, &c., weighynge 86 lbs. "IN THE LARDYR-HOUSE. "A bultynge pype, covered with a yarde of canvesse. 2 bultynge cloths. A knedynge sheit of canvesse, conteynynge 3 elles. A knedynge tubbe with a Coverynge. 2 vergys barrels. A skeppe.'" "A drynkynge horne, ornate wyth sylvyr and gylte in thre partes of yt, wyth 2 feyt of sylvyr gylte, wyth a ston sett with sylvyr and gylt; weynge in the whole 14 oz. and . "2 dozen of spoons, weighing altoge ther 23 oz."---(p. 143.) "There were also seven tables with scriptures upon them, to hange on the altares in the time of the Jubilee, and 16 banneres to change abowte the altars in the time of the Jubilee, whereof 14 of them bore the Pope's armes, and 2 the kinges.' Numerous painted or stained cloths are mentioned with representations, events, and scenes, and storys, and battailes, to hange abowte the quire of owre Ladi.' Also a mantell' of red and purple velvet, with the arms of England thereon,the gyft of Thomas Bennett, alias Clarencie, and bayly of this towne.' "St. Mary's-house, or Hall (the Guildhall), contained a table of alabaster, two yards in length, with altar-cloths and vestments, pix, bells, candlesticks, &c. Also an image of our Lady in wood, standing in a tabernacle, and a smaller image of our Lady in alabaster. A printed massbook is also mentioned, with the 'Masse of Saynt Botulph wrytten at the ende of ytt.' "Six table-cloths are stated to have been renewed in the time of Mr. Tomlynson, alderman. A great quantity of other table-linen is mentioned in this part of the roll: the table-cloths are of great length,-six, seven, and even nine yards long. The furniture of the hall-kitchen is given; amongst which is a great brass pot weighing 100 lbs., another 95, and two others of 60 and 50 lbs. weight. The whole of the brass pots, pans, and kettles weighed 1,053 lbs. The pewter and laten ware weighed about 500 lbs. The three 'greatt broches (spits) of yron' were each three and a half yards long. A beam of iron with four leaden weights are mentioned; these latter weighing 56, 28, 28, and 14 lbs. respectively. "In the hall are enumerated, 'five candlestykes hyngynge like potts,' whereof the highest had five branches, and each of the others three. A table covered with parchment, noted with Antems of our Lady, with 3 collecs,' and covered with linen cloth. "There were eight tables on the north side of the hall, joined and nailed to the tressels, and seven on the south side, similarly arranged, with twelve forms placed by the sides of the tables, and three tables and three forms in the chapel cham |